He tanked for 3 years getting a lot of high picks. The astros had the longest alcs streak ever, at some point you have to rebuild unless you got infinite money like the dodgers.
He also added to those picks and found gems like Alvarez in addition to mining the Caribbean. I'm pretty sure the Stros would be in better shape if Luhnow or one of his underlings was the GM. They didn't have to rebuild, they needed to retool. I hope I'm wrong , but I dont trust Dana to do this rebuild, I probably would feel differently if he had gotten Shaw in the trade.
I seem to remember Texans fans screaming about what Caserio got for Mr. Watson. Saying it wasn't enough and the Texans got Fleeced (6 picks...really?). Well, we know what the Texans did with what they got from that trade (and the related moves). Fans cannot see the Forest from the trees...alot of times.
They really like Paredes, have tried to trade for him a couple of times now. The Astros are targeting guys that can play multiple positions, under team control and solid offensive upside.
Paredes doesn’t excite me at all and the crown jewel of this trade is a 45 FV prospect. Couldn’t even get a solid top 100 guy for one of the best players in the game lol.
Paredes is your starting 3rd baseman for likely the next 2-3 years and can play basically anywhere but center and SS… and under affordable team control. He also fits the Astros stadium well. It isn’t exciting but an important piece for the Astros. I don’t really care what commercial publications think of Smith. Brown liked him a lot when he was entering the draft - and wanted him in this trade, so I trust him based on track record. The Astros traded one season of Tucker- who has averaged like 130 games a season the last 3-4 years. Tucker wasn’t going to sign an extension. The Astros tried many times - he said he wants to be a free agent. He can go get 400 million from someone else.
I would take Clifford over Smith straight up. Out performing Smith at a younger age and has significantly more pop. Instead of just developing Clifford they traded him for a shitty, decrepit JV and then traded one of the best players in the league for a worse prospect lol. Paredes is better than a replacement level player, but he’s still a significant downgrade from Bregman
I have seen Smith as high as 44 but pretty much a consensus top 100 guy. Multiple have him in the same tier as Melton and Matthews. That's pretty solid for his first professional year.
I don’t think anyone is going to argue with you that Lunhow isn’t the best GM we’ve had or that we wouldn’t be in better shape with him.
Crane has called Tucker a “strange cat” on multiple occasions. Both him and Brown were seriously disappointed in Tucker’s body language/attitude when he struggled in the playoffs. There’s no way he was coming back at anything the Astros were willing to offer him. Tucker is an elite player and could be a potential MVP candidate every season but in context this is a great trade. Crane doesn’t think Bregman is coming back. I don’t know if we budged on our original offer.
